30 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



above all, to me at least, the fruitful vine, of which, 

 when I drink moderately, it clears my brain, cheers my 

 heart, and sharpens my wit. How could Cleopatra 

 have feasted Mark Antony with eight wild boars roasted 

 whole at one supper, and other meat suitable, if the 

 earth had not been a bountiful mother ? But to pass 

 by the mighty elephant, which the earth breeds and 

 nourisheth, and descend to the least of creatures, how 

 doth the earth afford us a doctrinal example in the 

 little pismire, who in the summer provides and lays 

 up her winter provision, and teaches man to do the 

 like ! The earth feeds and carries those horses that 

 carry us. If I would be prodigal of my time and your 

 patience, what might not I say in commendations of 

 the earth ? that puts limits to the proud and raging 

 sea, and by that means preserves both man and beast, 

 that it destroys them not, as we see it daily doth those 

 that venture upon the sea, and are there shipwrecked, 

 drowned, and left to feed haddocks ; when we that are 

 so wise as to keep ourselves on the earth, walk, and talk, 

 and live, and eat, and drink, and go a hunting : of which 

 recreation I will say a little, and then leave Mr. Piscator 

 to the commendation of angling. 



Hunting is a game for princes and noble persons ; it 

 hath been highly prized in all ages ; it was one of the 

 qualifications that Xenophon bestowed on his Cyrus, 

 that he was a hunter of wild beasts.* Hunting trains 

 up the younger nobility to the use of manly exercises 

 in their riper age.f What more manly exercise than 



* See Cyropaedia, education of Cyrus, book i. chap. 5. Cyrus, 

 when a boy, paid a visit to his maternal grandfather, Astyages, king 

 of the Medes, who kept all sorts of wild beasts in large parks (para- 

 deisoi, or paradises). Here the young Persian prince hunted con- 

 tinually the lion, the bear, and wild boar, and in the sporting-field 

 prepared himself for the battle-field. E. 



t Professor John Wilson (the well-known Kit North of Black- 

 wood) attributes the excellency of our cavalry officers to their fox- 

 hunting education. The Duke of Wellington kept a pack of fox- 



